A long and eventful day of travelling followed by a quiet and uneventful day with minimal travelling.
Wednesday:
The plan today was to visit the Basque country of France, pop in to St-Jean-de-Luz on the Altlantic coast and then cross the border into Spain and spend some time in San Sebastian/Donostia. Genevieve, our landlady had wanted to join us but unfortunately needed to attend to family matters at the last minute. Nevertheless we had some helpful directions and instructions from her. Our route took us up to the E80 autoroute which crosses France from the Altlantic to the Mediterranean and we headed west for about an hour and a half. The country side is very fertile with huge fields of corn and areas of forest. To the south the chain of the Pyrenees looked magnificent today especially as we passed by Pau. Many of the higher peaks still have snow and sparkle in the morning sun. Absolutely no hope of getting a photo when speeding along the autoroute - you just have to imagine the scene - green fields, blue sky, snowy mountains! I have a theory that the French are so accustomed to gorgeous scenery that it does not occur to them to provide laybys from which awestruck tourists can take photos.
As we travelled closer to the coast the high peaks disappeared and we were into the Pays Basque, a land of hill green hills and sheep. We turned off the autoroute and into the countryside where we were amused to see road signs warning of "sheep convoys"! Our first stop was a Plus Beaux Village de France called La Bastide-Clairence which is supposedly a typical Basque town. The town was very quiet and interesting but not outstandingly pretty. The unusual thing is that all the houses are whitewashed and have used the same colour of dark red for shutters, doors and trim.
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| Red and white houses at La Bastide-Clairence, Pays Basque |
We discovered that every village in the Pay Basque is similar - the paint shops only have to order in red and white paint! Goes quite well with the rich green of the grass on the hills - an attractive combination! These are the colours of the Basque flag - so there we have it.
Our stop in La Bastide-Clairence was short and we carried on to the "World Capital of Peppers", Espelette, which is a bit further on in the rolling hills. As we came downhill towards the town we could see a pretty red and white town in the valley. What really stumped us was the traffic - why were there so many cars in such a sleepy hollow. We followed TomTom's directions into town and found it choked with traffic and pedestrians and the centre ville had a non too friendly "route barree" sign. It was soon obvious that finding a place to park was a lost cause so we decided to continue on. As we (very slowly) left town we saw some signs for a fete - maybe a Pepper Festival? - and judging by the number of people turning up, it must be a wonderful occasion!
So it was down to the coast and into the large fishing/holiday resort town of St-Jean-de-Luz right on lunch time. We had plenty of chance to see the town as we drove through at snail's pace looking for a carpark. The place was absolutely jam-packed with cars and people but certainly looked pretty nice and interesting - more red and white buildings too. There were queues to get into the car park buildings which were displaying "Sature" signs so we sadly decided to leave and push on to San Sebastian. Genevieve had advised us which carpark building to aim for there so we were kind of expecting another crazy traffic place.
Happily the approaches and city streets were relatively quiet - maybe everyone was having siesta? We drove along a pretty tree-shaded avenue beside the Urumea Itsasadarra River and directly into the heart of the city, found our underground car park with relative ease and emerged into the quiet streets of the newer part of the city. Zurriola Beach was only a block away so we though it might be a good place to find a nice restaurant and took a look. Immediately we found out why the streets were quiet - everybody was at the beach! It was pushing 40 degrees so who could blame them. No restaurants here, only a busy coastal road so we went back a couple of streets to a square where there was a nicely shaded restaurant doing a good trade.
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| Riverside San Sebastian - love the fluffy trees!
After lunch we walked to the river and looking across, decided that it was likely to be the more interesting part of San Sebastian. Jess took herself off to the beach for the afternoon while Maree, Mel and I crossed the river to what was in fact the old town. San Sebastian downtown is sandwiched between two large bays and it is only a matter of a few blocks from one bay to the other.
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| Entrance to the Bahia de la Concha - San Sebastian |
Beside the river are some imposing looking official-type buildings and then the shops in an area that is divided in two by the wide tree-lined pedestrian Del Boulevard Aldapa. On one side are modern stores, a park and more tree-lined streets. On the other are narrow lanes crowded with tapas bars and souvenir shops. Lots more people here, mostly strolling around and eating ice-creams.
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| San Sebastian - del Boulevard Aldapa, old town. |
We walked the length of the boulevard and emerged into the blistering heat at La Concha, the larger of the two bays. Again, the beaches were packed with sunbathers and swimmers.
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| La Concha - Fiesta Day and San Sebastian is at the beach! |
Maree and Mel headed into the shade of the alleyways and I ventured around the fishing port for a quick look before taking refuge in the shade.
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| Fishing port - San Sebastian |
We met up at 4 pm, afternoon opening time for the shops after siesta. When this did not appear to be happening we made enquiries and were told that today is "fiesta" - a public holiday therefore no shops. W didn't really care - the heat was getting to us a bit and it was time to rendezvous with Jess. The tapas bars in the old town didn't look very inviting - dark, dingy and the tapas plates sitting on the bar counters were attracting plenty of flies.
Enough of Spain and a two hour drive home. On the off-chance it would be less crowded we hooked off the autoroute and into St-Jean-de-Luz again - yay, a car park building with "libre" on the sign. We were right in the heart of the town which was still busy but not quite so chaotic as earlier in the day.
After a stroll around, checking out the maze of lanes with pretty (red and white) shops, the fishing port, (surrounded by red and white houses) and the beach (not red and white) we found a red and white restaurant in a shady lane and secured an outside table with a nice breeze off the sea.
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| Red and white shops, St-Jean-de-Luz |
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| Fishing port, St Jean-de-Luz with red and white houses |
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| Beach at St -Jean-de-Luz - late afternoon and still crowded |
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| Red and white restaurants, St-Jean-de-Luz |
By now it was approaching 8.30 pm and although still sunny, we were mindful of the drive ahead - still a couple of hours to Argeles-Gazost. This time it was easy to get out of the town and we sped down a quiet autoroute, arriving home by 10.30 pm. It was dark when we got to the house and I managed to scrape the side of the car on the gate, ending up with some green stripes on the pale silver of the Peugeot - darn it! Bed was very welcome tonight.
Thursday:
The driver was a bit tired today - fortunately the green paint came off the car easily - so we planned an afternoon excursion to the ski resort, Cauterets, only 16 km from Argeles. Annoyingly the road was closed for repairs today so we changed plans and went to Beaucens, a nearby village where there is a crumbling medieval donjon (keep) and a show featuring birds of prey. The donjon is on a hill above the valley so there are lovely views back towards Argeles.
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| Donjon at Beaucens |
The show was very popular and we saw a range of eagle type birds performing for food rewards. At the end there was also a parrot show. The birds were beautiful and seemed well cared for, but I couldn't help feeling sorry for them being in captivity. Back home we all kind of collapsed about the place - it has been very hot today. Tomorrow the road to Cauterets will be open again and it should be a little cooler (only 33 degrees).
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| View from the donjon |
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